PROGRAM GIVES JOB TRAINING
TO VETS, UNEMPLOYED OVER 50

S.D. one of 10 cities to host Platform
to Employment

Finding a job in this economy isn’t easy. But it’s even harder if you’ve been unemployed for a long time or are a veteran.

Even though overall unemployment is coming down, the figures for the long-term unemployed and veterans are not coming down as quickly.

But a program launching in San Diego today aims to give veterans under 30 and long-term unemployed people over 50 a boost in the job search.

Platform to Employment — which is privately funded by several corporations and foundations — is a free, five-week program of job training at the South Metro Career Center. After training, participants are placed with an employer, with the first four weeks on the job subsidized by the program. San Diego is one of 10 cities across the country to host Platform to Employment, which started last year in Connecticut.

The initial class includes 20 people over age 50 who have been unemployed for six months or longer, and four veterans under the age of 30.

Since national unemployment peaked at 10 percent in October 2009, the number of Americans unemployed long-term has fallen by 130,000. However, the long-term unemployed still made up 39.6 percent of the jobless in March.

People who are unemployed long-term face more challenges in finding a job because employers may wonder why they have been out of work for so long, and could be concerned their skills have diminished. This program aims to retool those abilities.

“People who have flipped over into long-term unemployment really run the risk of never becoming re-employed in traditional employment,” said Emily Allen, vice President of the AARP Foundation, which is putting up $100,000 for the program locally. “You’re 59 years old, you’re just kind of holding on until you take Social Security at 62, but the long-term impact is that’s a lower amount of Social Security throughout your life course, and you tee yourself up for long-term instability.”

Gustavo Bidart, regional director of Citi Community Development, based in San Diego, said his group is supporting the financial planning lessons that will be part of the curriculum.

“You have all these unemployed individuals who are trying to get back into the workforce — there are probably financial issues that might have crept up during unemployment,” he said, noting the lessons would be provided by the nonprofit Community Housing Works. Across the country, Citi Community Development is kicking in $400,000 for the lessons.

The unemployment rate for veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq is 9.2 percent in March, down from 14.2 percent in March 2010 (those figures are not seasonally adjusted). Veterans can face challenges in “civilianizing” their resumes, for example, turning surveillance in the military into a term that can be relevant to a job.

San Diego County’s February unemployment rate was an unadjusted 8 percent, the lowest in more than four years. The March numbers will be released Friday.